Long Run Friday

I ran 10 miles today. I was kind of nervous about that distance since (I'm embarrassed to say) I haven't done a 10 miler since before the half-marathon. And I was happily surprised at how good I felt.

This route, much like the marathon route has a bear of a hill that comes right at the end. The only way I got up it this morning without walking was by promising myself water at the top. I'm not sure I've ever shared my 10-mile route, here it is, just in case. It takes me along Minnehaha Parkway and Minnehaha Creek which is nice and shady, and then around Lake Harriet. The number of sail boats on Lake Harriet has like trippled since the last the I was there (which was last Saturday by the way). Or maybe I didn't notice them then. They were all parked along the shore. Between the sail boats and the bandshell and the sunrise, it was a gorgeous run.

This was also the first 10-miler where I've actually brought food with me. Did you know they sell little single serving bags of sour patch kids all year round, not just at Halloween? They do. And it turns out, around mile 5 or 6, that's just what I need to punch my blood sugar way back up. Nice.

I did have to go to work today, pretty much directly after I got done running. But I did treat myself to Chipotle, with lots of chicken and beans, to give my body some protein and I took a nap when I got home.

Now, sadly, I have to go to the YWCA (I know, the same day I did a long run) because I need to go these next few days to achieve the "good behavior" discount as I call it. I can't figure out what I'm going to do when I get there. It's 90* so the hot tub sounds not at all appealing. Neither does walking, or lifting weights, and cardio is out for obvious reasons. I might just get in their big pool and float around a bit. I just need to show up to get the discount. But I feel stupid checking in and leaving a few minutes later.

Elliptical... Wow

It's hot in Minnesota. Like Heat Advisory hot. So, I've been mildly fairly intimidated to run outside. I'm keeping up the work though.

Sunday, also my birthday, Beth and Jenna ran me around Lake Nokomis and let me walk up a hill for my birthday. Nice. Then, Bonnie acted as my personal shopper at Macy's. Some people have the gift of being able to look at clothes on a hanger and just know how they will look on a person. Kelly and Amanda also seem to have that gift. I do not. (It's ok, I have other gifts. I use my friends for this.) We picked out two tops and a pair of pants. I picked out a lot of brown, especially a lot of brown for Kelly not being there.

Then, I cooked. Well, first I bought a boatload of produce at the co-op. Then I cooked. And cooked. And cooked. I made Wheatberry Lentil Salad a stand by meal I make at least once a month and freeze. Obviously, I do not use tomatoes. Zuccini freezes well and I use that as a tomato replacement. Cucumber can also be used, but it doesn't freeze well. It get's slimy. Then, I made several servings of Honey Almond Chicken. I was advised the longer I ran, the more meat I needed to eat. (Speaking of food, I still haven't eaten dinner.) I thought this Tangy Cauliflower Salad would go nicely as a side with the chicken. It is perhaps my favorite meal I cooked. Yum

Monday I worked. I remember sitting at the pool at the end of the night. I'm reading a book called Veil of Roses, and I enjoyed it while I was cooling off after my swim. There's really nothing like getting in the pool at the end of the day.

Today, I meant to wake up and run 6 miles. I was intimidated by the predicted low of 76* (who runs when it's that hot?) so I decided to go to the gym. Happily, I did eight miles on the elliptical. So I'll do the six tomorrow outside. Hopefully outside. Now: dinner. Next: Sleep.

A Bonus Post: Things Liz Learned Today

• Running in the heat is hard work. Running with someone makes everything better.


• When Brooks upgraded from the Axiom 2 to the Axiom 3, they made the shoelaces shorter. It's not because of my OCD that I know that either.


• Shoes really are cheaper at some other websites. Wow.


• Anyone who's ever exercised to music knows why this sounds like a great idea. In real life, not so much. I'm now missing half my iTunes library. And it's not going to come back voluntarily.
  


• When my iPod doesn't talk to the computer, it's actually the computer that needs a restart


• Hydrate!

Sarah's visit and a running update

It's come to my attention that I've neglected this little blog for a while. Perhaps I'm nervous that I gave the address to so many family members who will only want running updates that I'm not posting regular updates too. Perhaps I'm nervous for certain family members (read: Mom, Dad, or anyone who would report back to them) to have too much information about my day to day life. Not that I'm doing anything bad up here. I've just become accustom to a certain level of privacy.

Last weekend, Sarah came to town. And ran me from pillar to post. No, seriously, I had a great weekend. I was feeling lonely for out of town people for a while, although the friends who live up here take good care of me. I haven't seem Mom and Dad since Christmas, and anyone from my family since February. We had great weather the whole weekend.

I was so worn out by the end of the weekend, it took me most of the week to recover and so I did not run very much. Luckily it was a "step down" week for Marathon training. Thursday the people I run with surprised me with balloons, coffee, and an awesome birthday cake that was drenched in butter (my favorite ingredient) at the end of the run. About half way into the run, two of them took off and one stayed back with me. I kept thinking, "what is wrong with me, why can't I keep up with them?" And then I had to stop and walk for other reasons. After Beth and Jenna sprinted to Beth's house and came back with balloons, I understood and felt a little better about my speed abilities.

Today was my first run with the Bolder Options marathon team. We started running at 8am this morning. It was hot. So hot that we unanimously agreed to meet earlier next week. Fortunately, next week we're running along the river and should enjoy more shade than Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles affords.

So how did Sarah entertain me while she was here?

First, I made her someone else decided we should get up at 5:30am to go running at 6:00am on Saturday morning. It was actually a beautiful run around Lake Nokomis. We saw some great shore birds around the lake. Afterwords, I figured I should give Sarah coffee as a peace offering.

Then Sarah decided it would be fun if I wore my hair down for the day. The three of us (Sarah, me, and my hair) went over to Lock and Dam 1 for some sight seeing and pictures. It was a gorgeous day. My hair did not stay down for long by the way.


Then we went over to the Como Zoo and Conservatory. The Conservatory was nice but the zoo was mildly crowded with screaming children. Maybe they weren't screaming. Maybe they were just happy and running around. I don't have kids so I don't understand all their movement and noise. I've been told it's harmless.

By that point, Sarah and I decided it was too hot to do much else. We had some Pho for lunch and then sat around the pool all afternoon. We took a brief walk around Lake Nokomis at sunset (yes, it really is that pretty right here in the city). Then we went to the Riverview for a movie that night.

The next day, Kelly and I took Sarah to Maria's for breakfast. Yum. Corn pancakes. Then I had to take Sarah for the obligatory trip to the Mall of America that is required for all out-of-town visitors to the Twin Cities. I tried to convince Sarah those shoes were "her", but in real life they look like they belong on a comic book character. I couldn't try them on because I surely would have fallen down.

Sunday we went to Bar Abilene for dinner for food with our Margaritas. After someone made guacamole right at our table and we ate, we went next door to watch the new Star Trek movie. That may be my favorite of all the Star Trek movies and that's really saying something. (The one with the whales is pretty good too.)

Monday morning, Amanda met us at Longfellow Grill for breakfast lunch, some meal or other. Then we took Sarah back to the airport and sent her on her way. I understand this week she may be at a wedding showing off the tan we got at the pool.

I'm back in a big way

I spent the greater part of this week feeling like I was going to die. I wasn't sick, I was just sooooo tired. I just kept waking up late, working, coming home and sleeping. Notice how there was no running? I did too. A couple different people pointed out that I was probably anemic and that I should eat red meat. I'll keep that in mind the next time I feel this way.

Wednesday, I finally felt mostly alive so I went for a semi-long run at the Y. I did six miles of sprints and then went another mile just for fun. Then I got in the pool and swam laps. I love the pool.

Yesterday I was unable to run because we had a birthday party (yes, at 5:30am) instead. I got in to work just after the party at 6:40am.

Today, I went for a run around Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha. I had a sweet view of this ginormous blue heron sleeping on top of the railing on the dock. Sweet. When I got back, I hooked up my iPod to download both runs and found out my little iPod and I have traveled over 1,000 miles together. Cool.

And the world's newest half-marathon finisher is...

I'm trying to figure out how I can get away with wearing my half-marathon shirt and medal to work tomorrow. Sadly, I don't think I can pull it off.

I was really nervous about the half-marathon. The longest I've really run is about 11.5 miles. The last time I tried to do a long run before today, I was less than successful. I was really afraid that I was going to finish with a really slow time which was going to mean I was going to have to do a lot more work to prepare for the marathon.

Team Ortho is pretty well known, at least around here. One of the things they do is have pace groups. The slowest advertised pace group for the marathon was 11:27 miles for a goal of 5hrs. I didn't think I could run that fast for a half-marathon, so I was bummed. But when I got to the starting line today, there was a pacer for 12:00 miles. Sweet! I'd like to take this moment to thank Kristen, you were a great pacer for the first 9 miles of the race.

In my pace group I met a few people who were running the half-marathon so I ran the last few miles with them. (Thanks here to Dan and Sandy. It was nice to meet you both!)

My favorite thing about training for the marathon and doing all this stuff along the way is that I'm continually reminded that it's not possible to run alone: even if I'm the only one in the race, all of you who've taken an interest in this are with me.

Today, Jenna and Beth cheered (really loud) for me at mile 9 and then after the turn around, gave me sour patch kids, water, and helped me up one of the hills by running with me. (I really can't say enough about how helpful that was. It meant a lot that you were there.) And then, I knew after they "dropped me off" at the water stop, I knew I only had less than a 5k to go to see Amanda and Kelly who were waiting at the finish line for me. (Oddly, they had food for me too.)

The course, mostly along the West River Parkway, is gorgeous. For those of you who don't live around here, the course runs right along the Mississippi River. The catch: it's not flat. Coming out of downtown, the course goes down hill, and then up hill for a mile. The nice thing is that we had that long down hill with just a mile or two to go. But then, that's right, we had to go back up in the last half mile. Wow. Check out the map and elevation chart here. I was so happy to see the finish line. And all those people cheering for me (well for everyone, but mostly me). I believe you can check results at the main web site. My bib number is 4985.


After the race, Amanda and Kelly treated me to an awesome breakfast of carbs Corn Pancakes at Maria's.

I came home and got in my pool. My presence was also required at the YWCA (one last visit to get my discount for good behavior) so I sat in their hot tub too. Now I'm sitting here thanking all of you. I seriously couldn't do this alone and I'm grateful for all of your support.

When it got warmer, running got harder

The thing about Minneapolis, for those of you who don't live here, is that was have awesome running weather for much of the year. And then the weather gets like it is now, and I loose all sense of reason and running ability.

I'd been up to 10 miles before the weather turned hot and humid. Today, I thought I was going to die after running about 7. I technically made it 10. I walked the last 3. So, that was my last long run before the half marathon on Sunday. We'll see if I do any better in race conditions.

It's a little bit discouraging to suddenly not be able to run. But I haven't lost all hope yet. I think I'll try some mid distance runs to build my stamina back up. I'm sure by August, (when I will no doubt be waking up at 5am to run), I'll have this heat thing licked. Then I'll spend all of October and November trying to teach my body to stop sweating so I can run outside in the winter without fear of loosing limbs.

Memorial Day Weekend was a pretty chill weekend for me. I laid around the house, ran a little, and laid around some more. I actually only have a 3 day week ahead of me too. I have Friday off. I plan on picking up my race packet down town that day and resting up for Sunday. Which means more chilling to bring in the month of June.

A Covert Reminder of High School

Some of you reading this will know I went to Walnut Hills, a very unusual high school. I took several advanced placement courses there, including AP English. Another person who went to my school was the son of cartoonist Jim Borgman. Mr Borgman, among other things has a comic strip called "Zits" about a high school student. He has said that he does get ideas for the strip from his own family, including his son. And it took me no time at all to take the reference in this strip, seen here on May 19. Know why? Because I had almost this same exact assignment as part of my AP English Class.



I think mine was "literary analysis of the minor characters in Huck Finn", but it was no less ridiculous for a 25 page paper. Thanks again Ms Mahin, I'm just happy I didn't have to take English when I got to college.

Still running

I'm am still running. And the donations for Bolder Options are still coming in. Thanks to all who have donated or are about to make a donation. My long runs are at 10 miles. I can't believe I run this far. I really can't believe there will be a time when I do more than one run per week that long.

I'm also still having bed bug issues. Or maybe not. It's not entirely clear.

Friday morning, I woke up with several bites on my arm that could only have been from bed bugs. (B@st$rds!) It was way too early in the morning so I freaked out but I didn't have a whole lot of energy to put into it. Instead I went next door to feed my neighbors cat. I put the old cat food down the garbage disposal which promptly backed up and flooded the sink. (It's too early in the morning for this.) It took several minutes of me staring at the sink, turning the disposal on and off, staring at the sink, imagining my neighbors reaction to a sink full of old cat food and water, staring at the sink, trying the regular side of the sink, thinking of how to fix this, and staring at the sink. Finally, I decided I had to reach into the disposal (it was off, calm down) to feel what was clogging it up.

Yeah, the cat food clogged up the collar of the disposal so nothing could get down it. Once I loosened the gunk, we were all good. That just left me with several bites on my arm. I ignored them and went to my 7:30am meeting. (I told you it was early.) When I got back home I called our property manager.

Has anyone ever had their apartment inspected? For bed bugs? Repeatedly? There is no privacy. There are no secrets. Those stains on the carpet or sheets? That stuff you keep under your bed because you don't want to think about it? Underwear drawer? It's all fair game. For the number of guys messing with my bed and rifling through my underwear, I should be much happier. Well, the first inspection which took about fifteen minutes didn't find any bugs. So they called the exterminators while I went to work.

The exterminators had to peel back my carpet from the wall to find the bugs. It's not clear exactly which wall it was. And they sprayed. And I have no further information. It's been five days. Nothing. I washed my bed clothes (for the billionth time) but haven't done anything else. I'm not sure if I have to. Remember all the work I had to do the first time? For now, I'm ignoring the issue. I'm sure I'll keep you informed as updates become available.

Linkfest

For those of you that are new to the blog, Welcome and for the returners and long time readers, as always, great to see you. From time to time, I like to let you know what I've seen on the internet. It's important because some of it probably reminds me of you.

• Hulu is one of my favorite websites right now. I have very few cable channels and hardly ever watch live TV anyway. I go to this site to catch up on my favorite shows, especially the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Well, Hulu has been in the news recently. First, the CEO Answered Freakonomics reader questions but deftly avoided telling me if they're going to release an application for the iPhone. And the follow up, Hulu bows to the whims of cable. If you've never been to Hulu the articles won't be as interesting but it's a site you should check out as soon as you're done reading my post. If you know Hulu, read the articles.


• I was checking the local news and saw this story about rescuing wild animals which reminded me of Beth. She accidentally told her kids that they could keep a wild bunny as a pet if they caught one. I never heard how that turned out.


• Almost all of use know someone who had high cholesterol and went on the Cheerio diet to lower it. Turns out the FDA wants Cheerios to be an over the county med. And the follow up, leave Cheerios alone and focus on all those other stupid supplements that don't actually work.


• For those of you who are runners or exercise like crazy, turns out if you exercise regularly, you don't need to take vitamins, or you should pick your evil. Diabetes or cancer?


• This comic was made for me.


• This map was made for Sarah. Aren't your potholes filled by now? The swerving can be really exciting. It becomes like muscle memory at some point. And then I get thrown off when the holes are filled in.


• And in closing, Don't robo-call a senator. I too have gotten a few (billion) phone calls from this service. It's such a funky number that I always know to ignore it. I'm ready for someone to get them to stop calling me. If you watch the news, every few days you'll see they called someone else they shouldn't have. I think there was a governor who was called too. Oops.

My Runs are Entering Double Digit Mileage

To the runners (or those with similar knowledge) reading this blog:
1. Please explain gel packs to me. Is this something that I would like? At what distance do I need to start taking gel packs with me in addition to water?
2. Please explain a "hydration strategy" for long runs. How much water should I be drinking when I stop? How often should I stop for water or Gatorade? Is there a frequency that's too often to stop for liquids?

I ran 10 miles this morning. I ran from my house, around Lake Harriet, (quickly becoming one of my favorite lakes for the view of the sailboats, band shell and downtown Minneapolis), and back home. If you're in town here, Minnehaha Parkway and Minnehaha Creek and pleasantly and surprsingly green. The trees are coming out. And the wild violets are in such full bloom they look like a carpet in some spots. For those of you not in Minneapolis, this is my running route.

Lake Harriet Bandshell. Photo from here.

The first time I ran it, I made it to the lake and around part of it before suffering, um, distress. I walked the rest of the way. The second time I definitely made it around the lake before I started walking. Eventually I started adding miles to the run home, first running to Nicollet, then to the expressway, then to a little farther. Today I ran all the way back to Chicago Ave and then ran intervals (this is how I add miles to the long run) the rest of the way.

Today, at the Portland Ave stoplight another runner and I were waiting to cross the street. She turned to me and said, "you must be doing a long run, I saw you running when I was taking my daughter to school." Sweet!

I just purchased a Fuel Belt after getting thirsty on my runs, needing calories on my runs, and seeing a lot of other runners with this particular product. (Although Amazon only had them in black. I'm feeling like I missed out.) After one run, I'm prepared to declare the thing a winner. I read the reviews pretty carefully before I bought it and they were all pretty much right. The belt is tight (it's not too small, it's supposed to be that way) but doesn't rub on clothing. Two hands are required to get the bottles out of and into the belt, but I'm always walking while I'm drinking so it's not inconvenient. The bottles do not leak. It's very nice to have both juice (I didn't have any Gatorade today) and regular water on a run. I could tell having fluids while I'm running makes a big difference. I felt better during the run and not as tired when I stopped.

A beautiful day at the park

Today, the first Sunday in May, was the annual MayDay parade at Powderhorn Park. The first year I lived in Minnesota, it was snowing on the day of the parade. Most of the time, it's nice weather like this. The theme this year had to do with finding richness in nature (since we can't seem to locate it in our economy). In that vain there were several "piggy bank" pig floats. We all joked that the floats were clearly conceptualized before the H1N1 influenza (yes, that means Swine Flue) outbreak. Talk about unlucky timing.
For those of you in Minnesota who've never been (why?), and those of you not in Minnesota, the parade does not have a corporate sponsor. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater is the main sponsor with some help from the Park Board and neighborhood associations. It's also used as a way to welcome Spring (yes, Spring just started here) to Minnesota. So, between the puppets and the actors and all the symbolism of spring and life, the parade and festival tends to gather a rather, um, eclectic crowd. Want proof?

Proof 1: The guy wearing a turtle shell around his neck. (Is it odd that I know that's a red-eared-slider shell?)

Proof 2: The guy in the pink hat. (Yes, that is a dude.) I wonder if this is a friend of Kathleen's (who I did not see) with the whole Easter Bonnet thing. I'll have to see if I can find his picture on her page.

Proof 3: In all fairness, this guy was on the "Sun God" (if you'd been to the parade, you'd know what I'm talking about) float and so does not look this way all the time (probably).

Proof 4: Also, I believe this had some role in the parade. Up close, it looks like a lot of ties. (I missed the symbolism because I didn't see it in the parade earlier.)

Proof 5: Cutest. Thing. Ever. (Look at the size of that phone...)

Liz, where have you been?

Where have I been? The short answer to that question is under the weather. I went in to work on Friday and was sent home after the first meeting of the day. I didn't fight it. I came back, drank ten gallons of liquids and slept all day.

On Thursday morning, I learned it's much harder to run with a cold than I expected. Thursday morning I ran with Robin and Heather. Beth thought it would be fun to wrench her back out earlier in the week apparently and so was unable to join us. Robin and Heather said I started out too fast (I find that hard to believe), but by the end of the run, I nearly thought I was going to die. While it may have had something to do with the speed at which we started, I think it also had a lot to do with a cold doing nasty things to my airways.

Obviously I skipped running on Friday. I did go for a four mile run today. I think I mentioned last week, but it's fun that I can think, "oh, hold on, I'll be right over, I just need to run 4 miles first". This is the first time in my life I've ever felt like that. It feels great. (Amanda, thanks again for deciding to run a 5k one summer).

On the news I was seeing that this is the Flying Pig weekend in Cincinnati. There's another marathon I'd like to run. I am trying to figure out if I could do long runs in the winter up here so I'd be trained to run it next year. Ha, just think. I could run the Cincinnati marathon in the beginning of May and come back to Minneapolis and run the Minneapolis Team Ortho marathon at the end of May next year. (I just want to point out, there was a time not so long ago when I had trouble believing I was going to finish just one marathon. Now I believe it at least enough that I've started planning for marathons after that. Wow.)

In other news, I helped Kelly and Eric move this weekend. And by helped I mean cleaned up mice poop in addition to other things. I love their new house. Especially the basement which is ginormous. It even has a cave. (Neither Kelly nor I love the cave. If it had a lot more light it would be ok, but then it wouldn't be a cave.) Also, the May Day parade is tomorrow. It's only a few blocks from my house so some people from work are coming here to park. (Why yes, I will spend the rest of the evening making sure my condo is clean just in case they actually come inside.)

I'm not sure if people have started to receive the letters I sent out Wednesday night, but if you have and that's what lead you to the blog today, Welcome and Come back often!

A new dawn may be starting sooner than I think

Well, I've done the unthinkable. Possibly not unthinkable, but at the very least, ill-advised. I mailed a letter today to all of my friends and family, and some loose acquaintances who asked to be included (thank you) giving an update on my progress raising money for Bolder Options. (Look at the sidebar on the right...) If you're reading this blog, there's probably a letter headed your way in the mail (unless you're moving this weekend, in which case it will be hand delivered). Once you get it you'll see that I included my blog address on the letter and invited people to check her for updates on the whole "Liz Trains for a Marathon" bit.

Some of you reading this blog may not have received this letter. And I may not have even asked for your support yet. To anyone in this category, just because I know how to get to your house doesn't mean I know your address. (It's ridiculous, I know. And, I'm including in that, people I've known since the year I moved to Minnesota.) Also, I have until September to raise this money. So I'm sure I'm still planning on asking for your support. But you can always leave a comment here on the blog or shoot me an email reminding me that I have your support and you're an awesome friend.

Now, why is a thank-you, update, come check out my blog letter ill-advised? Well everyone got that letter. And I'm including my parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, and even an old professor. So I think I'm going to have to broaden the scope of the little blog here, and possibly adjust the content slightly, just in case the viewing audience does grow. For those of you who don't have your own blog, think of friending your parents on Facebook. That's what I've just done here. (Hi Mom and Dad, glad to have you!)

Since the letters won't get mailed until tomorrow morning, I'm going to do one last linkfest with wise-guy comments my current audience will appreciate.

We'll start with news that rocks:

• Most of you know I live in the congressional district that elected the first Muslim congressman. (It's Minneapolis. We elected Al Franken too.) My representative's name is Keith Ellison and we're pretty happy with him here. Before he was elected, he did a lot of work on the north side of Minneapolis (read: the poor, drug-infested, gang-infested, all-but-forgotten part of Minneapolis), including some environmental work, which you don't see a whole lot, even in Minneapolis. Congressman Ellison was arrested this week while trying to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur. Someone said to me, "oh, that'll hurt his chances for re-election". It really won't. (I haven't checked, but I'll bet his approval rating actually went up.) The genocide in Darfur is a serious issue that often gets swept to the side. Thanks for doing your best to keep it front and center.


• Also, in the slightly-more-liberal-than-Minnesota state of Iowa (wow, whoever thought that's how we'd describe Iowa), same sex marriage licenses are now being issued without any problems. It's not lost on me that Iowa is the first state in the country to hold caucuses for the presidential elections, even before New Hampshire has their primaries. I used to hate that (think we'd have ethanol if it wasn't for Iowa going first?) but now I'm excited to see how President Obama and any potential presidential candidates speak to the issue of gay marriage.

Next up: headlines that rock:

• Honest, when I first saw this headline I thought it was a story from The Onion but apparently it's for real. I was sad to hear the bear died too.


• And Awesome sports headlines that don't require knowledge of sports to be funny. A slightly dirty mind always helps though.

Like I was going to have a post and not talk about the Swine Flu:

• First, get the real information on this one. In Minnesota there's a couple suspected cases (in a little town called Cold Spring, not in the Twin Cities, but they won't be confirmed until testing by the CDC is complete). All my friends and family in New York, you guys stay healthy and I'll be thinking about you.


• Once you have the facts, a little laughter never hurt. I love this one because I actually take some of the references. (Not all of them. I guess I'm not a true geek yet. Sorry.)

Like to cook?

• I tend to make some things from scratch. Especially chicken broth once Mark taught me how ridiculously easy it is to do (thanks again). Someone (who is either related to Martha Stewart or has too much time on their hands) decided to see if it's better to make various other foodstuffs from scratch or suck it up and buy them. My favorite is the granola thing. Also, Mark taught me to make some awesome pineapple-coconut marmalade jar of yum one time. I think I'd need a refresher before I made my own but wow was it good.


• This is self explanatory. I've never done a bacon-cone. Amanda and I have woven bacon, baked it, added potatoes and ranch dressing on top of the bacon-mat and then rolled it up like a tortilla and that was pretty damn good. I can imagine this is equally awesome.


• If you're not having a heart attack thinking about the bacon mat and the bacon cone, then you're probably healthy enough to have a nice mouse full of coffee (computer mouse, not live mouse, ewwww).

And a bit of randomness to end on:

• Speaking of friending your parents on Facebook.... Some of you probably know this, but I'm new to Facebook as you also know so I appreciate the tip.


• Also, in what is a surprise to exactly no one reading this...
  

  You Are a Ponytail

  You are energetic, laid back, and a lot of fun. You are ready for whatever life throws at you. Your idea of style is looking presentable. You prefer simple, well fitting, and neat clothes. At your best, you are productive, inspiring, and full of live. You love to be active. At your worst, you are hyperactive and frenzied. Sometimes it's hard for you to calm down.

172 days until.... Liz Trains for a Marathon

I think maybe I'll just count down the days until the marathon rather than counting my training weeks. In the mean time, I've achieved a new milestone: two weeks in a row of running five days a week. Technically this next week I can run four days instead of five. I can also forgo the long run. Not sure if I will though. Because at the end of May, I'll be running the Team Ortho Half Marathon. (And today Amanda volunteered to haul me up to the starting line at 7:00 in the morning.) And I just signed up to be a member of a 12 person relay team for the Great River Relay. How fun does that look? Each member runs three legs of the relay. How long is each leg? Check out the runner chart. I badly do not want to be runner number 5. It doesn't look like 2 would be much fun either. I'm really excited for the thing in August. Almost as excited as I am about the marathon.

Many of my friends who gave donations to Bolder Options have now said that someone from the agency has called to thank them for their support. I also thank you for your support. It feels like you're with me when I'm out running all over Minneapolis and St. Paul. I don't think anyone could run a marathon alone really.

The most productive thing I did all day

There's this game on Facebook called "Word Challenge", very similar to this game incase you can't find the one on Facebook. When the game gives me my score, it says, "you have the verbal ability of an......" and for a while it was saying "POET" and it looked like that was the highest verbal ability possible.

Not so much it turns out.

I just learned something new

Apparently, the trackpad cover on my MacBook can get so dirty it needs to be replaced. I'm having trouble deciding what kind of cover I'd like to replace it with. There's lots of them with designs, or I can upload my own design. Or I can go to the store and buy a white one and actually have it soon.
Too. Many. Options.

Funny news from around the web

I woke up bright and early today. Actually, I woke up so early it was not bright but dark. I ran with Beth and some other runners who go much faster than me. It's nice to have a new challenge. I think after running with them for a while, I'd like to be able to run a 5k in under 30:00. We ran 4 miles at about 1:00/mile faster than I usually run. It was hard to keep up with them at the end, but I think if I keep going back and running with them I'll get the hang of it.

I'm sitting outside and I'd swear my neighbors have a bald cat sitting out on their balcony. Not like the ones that don't have hair, but one that's supposed to have hair and doesn't.

Anyways, I've seen some ridiculous (meaning both funny and safe for work) stuff on the web lately that I wanted to share.

I have no idea where I found this one. I think it was on Yahoo News somewhere. It belongs on the FailBlog.


This one can be found on Overheard in Minneapolis. At first it appears to be a stupid thing to say, but it's actually so on the nose that it's hilarious.

I woke up and I was down one fish

I woke up this morning and there was only one fish swimming around in the tank. It took a full five minutes to find the other one. It was obviously dead and had mysteriously fell right in the middle of the fake plant. I actually had to pull the plant out of the water to pull the little fish out.

I'm not quite sure what to do for my little fish. I've read guppies are schooling fish and I should get more. But I was thinking I'd wait a while and make sure it was the fish that died and not the owner that killed it.

After I flushed the little fish (good think I hadn't picked a name yet), I went for a run. A nice long run. I ran 8 miles, just running, and then did intervals for the ninth mile. I'm getting closer to that nice 13 mile mark that I'd like to hit by the end of May.

It's possible I am a runner

Yesterday Beth drug me around Lake Calhoun faster than my body has ever moved in my life. (Thanks for that, I had fun by the way.) And this morning I ran 6 miles more or less.

It was sometime yesterday, or possibly the day before, that I started actually thinking I could run a marathon. And then I started thinking about all the marathons I could run. There's one in Cincinnati that would be fun. Plus at some point I do want to run the Twin Cities Marathon. I feel like that's the one that got all of this started.

I read this book once, (well a few times now) that said, whenever reality meets your highest thoughts about yourself a new and grander view of yourself is suddenly open to you. And in that way we never stop growing and getting better. That's how I'm feeling about running right now. I am finally starting to believe that I can regularly run 5 days a week. And I'm even contemplating the Half-Marathon at the end of May. (I should register for that pretty soon.)

I think this week I'm going to try to start running more with Beth so I can learn to go faster.